Juniper
by Hana-Dono
Summary: This is a story i wrote in grade 8 about a half elf girl named Juniper. this is my first story, and i worked really hard on it! i hope you like it!
1. Chapter 1

The cawing of a Graebyrd entered her dream, and she woke with a start. Though her pale green eyes were still closed, she could tell it was a fairly sunny day. For a few minutes she just sat there in her small forest home, trying to remember the quickly fading dream. A flash of light, cerulean blue eyes glinting in the golden sunlight. She lifted her lids, and stood up to let out a call for her companion, Her call shook the treetops with its velocity and volume. It was the call she used to summon her airborne friend. She only had to wait a couple of short minutes in front of her house before the call was returned. A flock of Eenos birds scattered as the large predator glided gracefully down to land on the young girls forearm.

"_Caell, how was the hunt?" _though she had not spoken the common language, Caell, the large

Aivng bird, seemed to understand, and respond.

"_Not very well Juniper, my birds searched all over the __forest lands__, but we didnt find anything." _Juniper sighed,

"G_o find something to eat, okay?" _without another word, the bird flew off.

Juniper sat down on a boulder and realized that she was running low on supplies and would need to stalk up in the nearby villages.

"great," she grumbled. "I hate villages."

She wore a long coat of burnt umber, and a matching satchel that hung off of her strong shoulders. It seemed like every single creature in the small town was staring intensely at her, their eyes drilling into her back. people were whispering behind her back, and she was starting to get irritated.

"Psst! Look at her!"

"why is she here?"

"what do you think she wants?"

As she listened to what the townsfolk were saying, a large steambuggy drove past, knocking her out of the way.

"Watch where your going." she grumbled. No matter how many times she had helped this town by providing weapons and tools, they still treated her like a piece of dirt. It made sense that they would wonder about her, being half elf and all. With her translucent,yet bright green eyes, her long, tapered ears that came into view when her white-gold hair was tucked neatly behind them, and the fact that she was a few inches taller than the average 18 year old human girl, and could easily look down on them made it hard to blend into a crowd, and made her drastically stand out in a crowd.. But the humans in this village were being downright rude. They would act as if she didn't exist and completely ignore her, then when her back was turned they would stare and loudly whisper.

As Juniper came around the corner of yet another falsely cheery street, she spotted the sign she was looking for, the blue juniper berries.

In every town around Junipers forest, there were many people, not just humans, who were against her, and would jump for joy to get the chance to eliminate one of her kind. If Juniper just walked into a market or store filled with these types of people, it could be dangerous. Instead of taking risks, when she first made the forest her home, she asked certain people she trusted to ask all people who were friendly to her kind to decorate their doors, and signs with juniper berries, Junipers personal signature. If there were just berries on the sign, she knew the place was safe, if there was a whole juniper tree, however, that would be one of her contacts, they gathered information about the cities and the government. This particular shop owner was one of her informants, and also her best friend.

Juniper burst into the shop, ignoring the surprised looks as she took off her coat and tossed it casually onto the mechanical, brass coat rack. Suddenly there was a hiss of steam as it rotated to make the next rack accessible. When she heard a crash from the back room, she new he was there.

"James!" she laughed at the strange sight before her. "What in the world were you doing?" There, in the middle of the small storage room, was a tangled mess of what looked to be the remains of a Communications receptor, and James. There were wires and brass tubes tangled in the bronze strands of his hair that seemed to glow in the light of the oil lamp. His electrifying blue eyes glinted with laughter as he tried to explain how exactly he got into this mess.

"Its not my fault!" he could barely talk for all the laughing he was doing. Juniper just stared at him like he was crazy.

"And how is this not your fault? Your the one sitting in the middle of this mess with a screwdriver!" this question he couldn't seem to answer.

"Uuuuh..."

"Thought so." of course, walking into James' back room, and finding that something exploded in a very violent manner, was not very unusual for Juniper. It was actually quite common. Juniper sighed.

"Lets get this cleaned up then, okay?" James leaped up with a bound of energy.

"Okay! Come on!" once again Juniper sighed, and went to look for a broom. After they had recoiled wires, stacked up sheets of fallen metal, and swept up the knuts and bolts, James brusquely walked over to a crimson brick wall, covered in mallets, swords and an assortment of other weapons and tools. He reached up to the topmost shelf on the wall, standing on the tips of his toes, and grabbed a long, thin sword with a flat circle on the tip, instead of the normal sharp point. Then he began to feel along the wall, as if he was searching for something. His slender, yet calloused fingers swept slowly along the wall, running over every crack and crevice. On the top right corner he paused,

"Got it!" He whispered, than quickly stabbed a small circular hole in the wall will the sword. A slight and quiet grinding noise filled the small room as the wall slid open to reveal a short hallway, with brightly lit oil lamps shining on the walls.

Juniper could hear the laughter, shouting, and the other noises coming from the shops around them on the other sides of the thin walls that surrounded them. James was already heading towards the ornately decorated door at the end. The copper plating, and bronze swirls twisted together to form the shining doorknob James twisted. When the door swung open a small room, with a long table in the middle, and filled chairs placed around it. In these chairs were women and men, human and elf. They all were wearing pearly white grins upon their faces as they talked and laughed amongst each other.

"Ahem." She felt bad for interrupting their talk, but it was necessary to get their attention.

"Juniper! How 'ave you been? Why'd you come on such short notice?" A man with a wrinkled, friendly face and a loud voice jumped up out of his chair and smiled as soon as he saw her. Juniper almost laughed at his expressive behaviour and took a seat on the chair next to him.

"Oh Thomas, I've only been here for a quarter of a minute! Let me sit down first, i did just walk an awfully long distance you know." Thomas looked slightly abashed and decided that the best way to hide his embarrassment, was to talk. Thomas loved to talk, about gears, energy sources, wire, the best metals, he could talk all day if he could!

"Sorry 'bout that June. You know I cant help myself, its been so long since I've seen you!" Juniper sighed at his nickname for her. She guessed it was better than "Berry", his first nickname for her, but still, "June"? He had been calling her that for the past seven months or so, and it was starting to catch on. Even James called her that sometimes.

"Come on Thomas! You know I don't like nicknames!"

"Oh, don't whine about it June! Your three hundred and forty two! Act your age!" that was James, mocking her once again. He had called her June just to get on her nerves, and of course, it worked. Before she could get in a nasty retort, a woman stood up and immediately called all the attention to herself. It was Saera. Saera was the only full elf Juniper knew, so she was greatly respected by all of the members of the large resistance counsel. They respected her almost as much as they respected,and looked up to Juniper, their leader. The room quieted when Saera began to speak in her clear, loud voice.

"Quiet!" she exclaimed. "Juniper. There must be another reason you're here. You never come without a good reason." Juniper sighed. Of course she was right, she was most of the time. Juniper did have another reason, and it wasn't to discuss the quality of new steam engines.

"Your right Saera, I do have another reason. I found something." at this the eleven people around the table stopped their quiet whispering, if Juniper had found something, then this was very important.

"I think I may have found him. I only have one source for this information, but I trust them as much as I trust any of you, and that is saying quite a lot." Now everyone was speechless. It took a lot to earn Junipers trust, out of three of the towns that surrounded Junipers forest, she had only decided to trust the eleven of them, because they had protected her and saved her life more than just once. A tentative voice from the corner of the table then spoke up,

"Him, Juniper? Didn't you say that he had vanished almost two hundred years ago? How can you be sure its him?" At first Juniper didnt say anything, then she opened her bag and gently pulled out a soft leather pouch. On the middle, there was a crest. A strange flower with a star in the middle. The boys eyes widened along with the rest of the group.

"I...is that... That's the crest of your family, isn't it Juniper." Juniper nodded and opened the pouch to reveal two packets, and a letter. First she opened the packets.

"These," she said while holding out the first packet, "are the seeds of the flower that my siblings and I would always carry around in our pockets, I happen to have some of my own in my garden in the forest, you can only get them from my garden or well,my fathers castle. It burned down when I ran away." a this her eyes started to glass over with unshed tears. Juniper quickly blinked them away and held out the other package.

"These are ashes from the castle, and this," now she held up the letter. "is a letter I sent to my brother when I ran away. As James here knows, I ran away from the person who burnt down the castle, but before I ran, I left a letter for my brother, telling him to take everyone else and run. Right after I had dropped the letter on his nightstand, I heard a scream that there was I fire, so I ran, thinking I would be the only one left alive. I knew that I would not have enough time to save them, and that they would want me to run, so I left the letter and ran." After her little speech, she snuck a glance at James, he gave her a small, sad smile.

"How do you know its not a forgery?"that was the boy in the corner again.

"I know, because one, I put a spell on the letter so that me and my brother could instantly tell who wrote it, and two, its my own handwriting. I think I can tell I wrote it."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. Now, I came to ask who would help me find him. I need people to come with me, and I need supplies. I know most of you can't leave your families or shops alone so that's okay. So, who wants to come?" Instantly James' hand shot up into the air. After a couple seconds,Thomas' did too.

"I knew you two would volunteer." Juniper said with a smile. "Anybody else?" A small human girl put up her hand. Juniper's smile widened, this girl was her third recruit to her resistance, the first two being James and Thomas, she was quite fond of this girl. Her name was Emily, she was exactly fourteen years and eight months old, and was extremely skilled with telescopic lightning spears. A small brass pipe, that extends to three times longer on either end and has a small generator in the middle that conducts lightning onto the spear tips. Juniper knew that Emily wasn't helpless, and that she was a strong, smart girl that would be quite helpful to have with them.

"Okay, so me, James, Thomas, and Emily. Harold! Can you supply us with some dried foods? And Jannett, can you lend us some tools? Anything else we can either get from James, make it ourselves, or get it from the forest." the two people she had addressed nodded and ran off to get what she had asked for. Juniper had a feeling that this was going to be a long trip.

"James? Lets go pick up what we need from your shop, okay? Thomas, Emily, you come too." they all started to walk back down the short hallway, back through the secret door, and back into the backroom of James' store.


	2. Chapter 2

Juniper searched James' small shop top to bottom, and side to side. The shop contained many things, from sheets of metal and gears, to leather canteens and warm, fuzzy blankets to sleep on. There were three floors and a cellar in the shop. The top floor held the out of doors supplies, the second floor held clothing for men and woman, the main floor held camp foods, and the cellar held the engineering equipment.

Juniper ran up the creaking oak stairway, and came to the top floor. Knowing exactly what she needed, she pulled eight thin woollen blankets, and four soft sleeping mats off of a shelf, then found five canteens, a water resistant tarp, and a few other small necessity's. She then raided the clothing floor for a change of clothes for each of them, and some fighting clothes. Finally she went down to the cellar to pick out weapons, and tools for each of them. For her kind old friend Thomas, she picked out a steam powered stun gun, for she knew he would never want to hurt another person if he had a choice. She already knew what weapon Emily would insist on, a telescopic lightning spear. She picked out one with a foot long bronze handle and pure bronze spear tips. For James she decided on a more powerful version of Thomas's gun. Before she went back up the creaky stair to meet James, after considering for a few seconds she stuffed something into a large bag, then ran upstairs.

Juniper sprinted up the stairs and spotted James, she said to him, "I've got everything we need James. Are you ready to go?"

"What? Can't we at least stay the night before we go? It will be a while until we get to sleep on a proper bed you know." When he said this, Juniper snapped her head around and looked incredulous, there was a spark of hope and longing in her now watery, pale eyes. He knew it was a mistake to ask her that.

"Stay the night? If we don't leave tonight, then we might not be able to catch up with my contact and find my brother. We need to leave tonight, no more questions." James looked into Juniper's sad eyes and wished he knew how to comfort her. Since her home burnt down when she was a child, she had thought that her whole family was dead, and now her brother might still be alive? He knew there was no way she was going to wait to leave. James admired her for her strength, if he was in her position he would have been completely freaking out. He was her best friend, and even though he knew that he could never truly know what she was going through, he would be there for her.

"Anyways," her voice interrupted his thoughts as he was brought back to reality. "It's kind of nice to sleep under the stars, it looks like its going to be a warm, cloud free night." Juniper smiled wistfully as she imagined the pure black night, flickering with splatters of white hot light. She and her friends lying outside with no need for a tarp, stargazing all night long.

"Damn it!" Exclaimed Thomas, "I forgot to pack my nice suit!" Every one burst out into joyful laughter at Thomas's antics.

"Oh Thomas," giggled Emily, "why in the world would you need a suit in the forest?" Thomas sniffed indignantly.

"Well," he replied, "in case we found a nice town to stay in, and decided to go to somewhere nice, I would want to look presentable!" Juniper smiled softly at her old friend. They had met up at the town fountain to collect themselves before their trek. The group sat on the big stone bricks that surrounded the large fountain which was constructed out of many kind of metals. Packing their supplies into large cloth travelling bags, they talked about what might happen, and what they might find.

Before Juniper had left the shop with James, she had gone into a small room to change into her travel clothes. She now wore a long crimson dress, that was thin, yet warm, and a short black, woollen dress on top. She wore a thin black belt around her shoulder and waist, and a thick brown leather belt with a metal ring, on her hips. She also wore a pair of black leather gloves, a pair of flats made of hardened leather, and a long, thick forest green robe that hung to her ankles. She kept her leather bag, as well as a newer travel sactchel that held the rest of her equipment. As they were getting ready to leave, Juniper had an idea. James noticed she was thinking, and thought that something might be wrong.

"Are you okay Juniper?" He enquired. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing's wrong, but would you mind excusing me for a few minutes?" James looked confusedly at her for a few seconds, then shrugged,

"If you say so Juniper, but be careful, okay?" Juniper smiled and nodded at him.

"I will," she replied, "don't worry, I will be back soon." And with that she ran down the street and around the corner, out of James' line of sight.

Once Juniper had rounded the corner, she called for Caell. Within a couple seconds, he was gliding towards her, his eyes were green. She was glad that there was no subtle hint of red in his eyes, it meant there was no danger in any nearby areas.

"_Caell, I need you to do something for me." _Caell tilted his head to the side, curious. "_I need you to find that woman we encountered the other day, tell her that I am on my way with three accomplices. Then come and find me, I will probably be somewhere in the forest." _He nodded, and without a word, flew off into the evening sky to do as she said. She turned and started to head back towards the group.

As she got closer, she called out, "James!" James turned around to see Juniper running towards him, her golden hair shimmered in the light of the now molten orange sun. Her face lit up with a smile as she called for him, and he couldn't help but smile back. "are you awake James? You just kind of zoned out there." Juniper's smile had transformed into a worried frown, he hated to see her frown.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." Juniper smiled softly and gave his shoulders a squeeze.

"Okay, but if there is something bothering you, I want you to tell me. You will, right?" James nodded in agreement. "Good, then lets get going."

Saera met them at the edge of the woods to see them off. She waved goodbye, as they walked into the shadows of the quickly darkening forest.

"Goodbye." she whispered, as they were swallowed by the darkness.

Juniper looked back towards Saera once more before she was too far away to see, she heard a faint sound coming from Saera's direction. It sounded like she was trying to tell her something.

"Goodbye." that was what she said. She was wishing them luck on their hunt, and saying goodbye. Juniper smiled and let the winds carry her whispered reply to Saera.

"Thank you."

A dark shadow crossed over grassy fields and swept over the towering treetops. A figure flew over grey cliffs, and into a small mountain valley. A little hut caught its eyes, and it glided silently down through the air and lit on the window sill. An older woman with silver hair and onyx eyes sat within the hut she had a small hammer in one wrinkled hand, and a miniature steel airship in the other.

"So you're back," her voice sounded surprisingly clear and loudfor such an old woman. "Does this mean that the half elf girl is coming_?_" The birds eyes seemed to fill with disapproval and he quickly snapped at the woman sitting before him. He knew that she was trying to strike a nerve in him, and he almost let her, now he was going to be as calm as his mind would allow him, and try to keep his eyes from turning a dangerous, blood red.

"_Yes, she is travelling this way as we speak, three companions are with her._" The lady looked up, surprise apparent in her face.

"I see...are they human...or something else?"

"_Human, but I see no reason to tell you anything else._"

"Of course, I will not ask you to."

"_Good, I will be returning now, Juniper is waiting._"

"Yes Caell, you should."

Caell spread his wings and stood on the window sill, "_Goodbye for now, Theroan_" He tipped over the edge, and soared into the sky of swirling blackness.


	3. Chapter 3

"Thomas! Its starting to rain! We have to get this tarp up!" Emily was frantically putting up the the tarp, while Thomas was sitting under a tree, near the campfire, sleeping.

"But Emily! It's only drizzling, and sitting underneath trees keeps us perfectly dry!" Thomas replied.

Emily sighed, "Okay Thomas, but when Juniper comes back and finds that the tarp isn't up, your taking the blame" Thomas paled. He knew that Juniper would expect him to help Emily with the tarp, and would become mad if he slept under a tree while Emily did all the work.

"Fine," he grumbled. "I'll help you put up the tarp." Emily smiled warmly, any evidence that she had just blackmailed him into helping was gone.

"Juniper! Where are we going?" Juniper was walking through the forest silently with James trailing behind her. Juniper stopped and turned around. "Juniper?" Suddenly James was enveloped in a crushing hug.

"James."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For leaving your shop just to come with me." James smiled and laughed. "What is it?"

"Oh Juniper, you don't need to thank me for that! Of course I came with you!" Juniper looked puzzled.

"But you didn't need to come. You chose to. That's why I was thanking you. Because you're my best friend, and you would and have done so much for me. Thank you."

A rustling in the bushes alerted Emily, she turned around expecting James and Juniper, and saw only fiery orange eyes before she turned and ran back to Thomas.

"Thomas! Hurry! Someones here, hide your gun in your sleeves, okay?" Thomas tilted his head to the side.

"Why would they attack us? We didn't do anything."

"Just do it!" She gasped as she hid her lightning spear in her pocket, so that she would be able to pull it out with a moments notice. "Now, just sit by the fire, and talk."

Barely a minute later, three figures walked into the clearing. One had unnaturally bright, green eyes and green hair so dark, it looked black. The second was the one that Emily had seen in the bushes. Her fiery orange eyes and navy blue hair were hidden under a hooded cloak. The third person had lavender coloured eyes, so pale they were almost white, and his dark silver hair shimmered in the pale moonlight. The three of them looked coldly at Emily and Thomas, as if they were waiting for something.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Emily enquired, trying to see if they were dangerous.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Raein, this girl is Taue, and this is Jemn." As Raein introduced her companions to Emily and Thomas, she gestured to each of them. The one with orange eyes and blue hair was Taue, the one with green hair and eyes was Raein, and the one with lavender eyes and silver hair was Jemn. "We are looking for a half elf girl who is said to live in these woods." Now Emily's eyes widened. They must be looking for Juniper. When she looked over at Thomas, she saw that he had made the same conclusion.

"Why do you search for her?" Thomas asked.

Taue answered with a smirk."Because she's half elf, there are quite a few people looking for her you know." Emily pulled out her spear. "What are you going to do with that? Its just a section of pipe!" Emily pressed the trigger, and released a gush of steam into the pipe, to make it expand. Taue gasped in surprise.

"That's right." Emily stated. " I need you three to leave now. And I don't want you coming back."

Then Raein started to laugh. "What? You really think we came all this way to find the half elf and will just leave now because you tell us to? You must be delusional!"

"No, she is not." The three newcomers swirled around to find a human boy, and a half elf girl standing several feet in front of them with weapons drawn. James continued as Juniper glared at the people who were threatening her friends. "You should all leave now! We have been listening, we were not far away the whole time. But couldn't come out because you were looking for Juniper. Now that you've threatened our friends however, we couldn't stand by any longer, right Juniper?"

Juniper smiled a smile that chilled them to the bone. "That's right James. We can't let them hurt our friends, now can we?"

For the first time, Jemn spoke up up. "Wait! We don't have any real excuse, but I don't want to die. Please."

Juniper looked surprised. "Die? You thought we were going to kill you? That's crazy, unless you attack us you will be safe"

Now it was Jemn's turn to be surprised. "Then what did you mean?"

Juniper laughed. "What we meant was that we will never let any of our friends get hurt."

The boy looked ashamed. "Oh, I'm sorry...We don't want to attack you, we were hired to capture you. We were told that you were a dangerous monster that killed indiscrimenantly and we need to bring you back to be dealt with appropriately. Now I can see that it's just not true. I see no need to capture you any longer."

Juniper smiled and gestured to the blazing fire. "Well, if you guys are not going to try to capture me anymore, then why don't you stay here for the night? We have a few extra blankets, and our fire is big enough for everyone." The three visitors nodded.

"Sure!" replied Taue "we would love to!" Everyone grabbed a blanket and sat beside the fire, while Juniper started to cook the deer she and James had killed on their way back to camp.

As the group watched the meat roast over the fire, Jemn explained who had hired them to capture Juniper. " I have no clue what he looks like, but he seems to be very intent on catching you. I don't think that he is human, or elf. He may be some kind of elemental demon though." Thomas seemed unsurprised as he listened in on the conversation that seemed to have left him out. Then he heard something of interest. "He was communicating through someone else. A young child would bring us a voice recording with his orders." Thomas was outraged.

"A child!" he yelled "That monstrous person sent a child to give messages to bounty hunters?" The three so called bounty hunters were deeply offended. They would never hurt a child, and when they were hunting Juniper, they had been told that she was a monster. They knew Thomas was just upset that a child had been put in danger, but he had no right to lash out at his new allies. Raein stood up abruptly."If you are done implying that we would hurt a child, I would like to go to sleep now. Good night." Thomas looked down at his feet in unhappy embarrassment as blankets and sleeping mats were lain out around the fire. Halfway through the night, Juniper could be found sitting on the outside edge of the camp, looking up at the midnight sky that looked like someone had thrown a fistful of glittering diamonds into the sky. She was reclining on the fresh, crisp green grass with her back propped up against a grey rock. Around her was a field flowers, of every shape, colour and size.

"It looks like fathers garden." she whispered softly to herself and then she called out to the presence that had been watching over for the past two hours. " I know your there. You can stop hiding now." A young girl of around ten or so years, jumped down from the lowest branch of the tall pine tree behind her. " I don't know how you can stand being up so high. You could fall at any moment." Juniper stood up and slowly strode over to the child hidden in the dark shadows of the tree. She could only get a good look at the girl once she was practically standing on top of her. "You probably shouldn't be out here alone at night, although I bet your going to say you can take care of yourself, right?" the small girl looked up at Juniper, her soft white hair falling back from her face. She rolled her chestnut eyes as she responded with a smirk.

"Yeah right, like you're one to talk. I bet you didnt sense me until I knocked that stick down!" Juniper mumbled something incoherent and started walking back to camp. "Pardon?" the girl enquired. "What did you say?"Juniper sighed.

"I said that there is no use following me, I know that you are one of the children sending messages, but I want to hear it from you, I want you to confess." The girl stood there with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "If you want to know how I know, I'll tell you, after you confess."

"Fine, so what if I am. Are you going to do something about it?"

"Yes, I am. I can't have you going to report back that you found me. That would only cause me trouble."

"Oh."

"Now I need you to answer my questions. Who are you?"

The girl looked around uncertainly and realized that she had no choice but to confess."I'm Kyra."

"What about your last name?"

"None of your beeswax."

Junipers eyes narrowed to slits. "Tell me." The girl now known as Kyra was getting on Junipers last nerve. " I need you to tell me Kyra!" Kyra looked surprised at the older girls outburst.

"Reil, its Reil!" Juniper looked at the girls eyes, which were now hidden underneath her pale bangs. They held a slight fear, but no lies. She sighed and grabbed the girls hand.

"Come on, I want to see what my friends think of you." as Juniper started walking towards camp, the small girl twisted out of her hand, and ran at top speed in the other direction, Juniper was to slow to catch up. "Wait! Where are you going? Come back!" it was no use, by the time Juniper had gotten to the edge of the clearing, Kyra had disappeared. "Great, now what?" she said to herself as she made her way back to camp.

James woke up to the clatter of Juniper and Emily making breakfast, with Thomas trying to help. It was pouring rain, and they were lucky the tarp hadn't fallen down, if it had, they would have all be soaked. Raein, Jemn and Taue were packing their bags and getting ready to move out. As the crystalline droplets plummeted from the clouds and soft rumbles from far away thunder shook the group, strong flashes of pure white light filled the clearing. James watched as Juniper looked up at the sky, her silky hair swirling behind her in the wind, and her clear green eyes seeming to pierce the sky. As another wave of thunder rolled through the group, Junipers face grew worried. She looked to James, and seemed to communicate through their eyes. As soon as she gave him a certain look, he got up from where he was daydreaming and started to place his things inside his bag. Soon enough, Thomas and Emily got the message it was time to go. Once they had filled their bags, they took down the tarp and ran for cover from the rain. Emily thought to find another clearing, further from the storm, Thomas thought to sit under the trees, and James suggested that they find a small cave and use the tarp as a door. Juniper agreed with James. Of course, they would have to scout one out first, and then search it to make sure it was not occupied by something else. It would be best if it was close to a river, or other fresh water source. Of course, if they couldn't find any drinking water, they could always collect rain to drink. They all decided that Emily was the fastest, and would be the one to go search, not without a radio of course. Before she left, they set up a temporary camp, with only the tarp, and a fire, they would stay and wait until Emily came back, hopefully with a place to go, then pack up and move out. Jemn, Taue, and Raein were heading off on their own once again, and would try to find the identity of the man who had hired them to find Juniper. They had made new friends and had a new purpose.

Once the former bounty hunters had left, but before Emily started her search, Juniper explained what had gone on the previous night. No one seemed to recognize the name, but they all knew that it would be a problem that she'd gotten away. Most likely, she would go to her 'master' and tell him everything. The four of them agreed that it would be best if no one spoke of it until they had secured a new campsite.

About a half an hour later, Emily was to be seen running through the forest and bursting into the open. "I found a place! Its unoccupied and beside a strong river. There are lots of non-poisonous plants, and healthy wildlife to hunt! And the cave has a small tunnel entrance, that opens up into what is basically a hole in the middle of a cliff. Its perfect!"

Emily was ranting about her magnificent find with enthusiasm, when Juniper interrupted. "It sounds great Emily, but can you help us pack our stuff so that it does not get soaked?"

"Yup!" Emily was just a bundle of energy today, and Juniper thought this was hilarious. She herself was quite calm, the rain seemed to influence her and her mood. It didnt make her sad, just calm. When it rained, an unexplainable calmness washed over her. She looked over at James, he looked calm on the outside, but she could tell that he was exited by something by looking into his sparkling eyes. She was curious as to what it was.

James walked alongside his friends, willing his features to remain calm, while inside he was very, very happy. They were reaching a place where he could be alone with Juniper for a bit without leaving the others in danger. He would finally tell her.

When Emily stopped in front of what seemed like an ordinary cliff wall, everyone was confused.

"Uh, Emily." James was confused. "Why in the world are we standing in front of a cliff?" Emily giggled and pointed to a small waterfall, then ran over to it, and disappeared. Just then, her voice came from the other side of the waterfall.

"Come on! It's right behind here!" The tunnel that led to their new camp was hidden by a waterfall. It was perfect, only one exit and they could close it up! The fresh water they needed would be provided by the falls, and there was plenty of wildlife. The three followed Emily, and found a small path behind the waterfall that led to the cave. It was barely tall enough to fit Juniper, and and was only wide enough to go single file. After a minute or so they came to an opening in the tunnel that was basically a big hole in the ground. Funnily enough, there were even small tunnels leading through the roof that would filter out campfire smoke. "See! Told you!"

"Yes Emily, it it a very good spot you found. Now lets set up. This can be our base camp." Juniper was already unpacking as she said this. She felt something familiar, a friendly presence and then realized what it was,"Caell is back!" She stood up, and went running outside. "_Caell! Your back!" _Caell flew down smoothly to land on Junipers forearm.

"_Yes, and the place I went, its two days to the East." _

Juniper smirked. "_You are very straight and to the point today Caell, whats up?" _

Caell hung his head._"I'm tired June! I just flew for a whole day without stopping you know!" _he whined and Juniper sighed.

"You must be tired if you are not even bothering to speak the common language in the presence of my friends."

"Oh! Sorry June, I will talk like this now."

"It's fine, just go rest." Caell flew into the small cave and Juniper turned to her friends, "Who thinks we should leave early tomorrow?" Emily nodded, while James and Thomas raised their hands above their heads. "Dorks." The boys grinned and broke down into laughter. Juniper smirked and rolled her eyes. "Once again. You. Are. Dorks." She called Emily over to her and the two of them walked into the cave, leaving the boys behind. Once the girls were gone the boys broke down into laughter once again.

"That was hilarious James!" said Thomas.

"Yeah, did you see how they reacted? Awesome!"

"We should probably should go apologize to Juniper though, she is going to be in a bad mood."

"She'll be fine Thomas,lets just leave the girls alone, okay?" Thomas agreed and started laughing again.


	4. Chapter 4

"James! Watch out!" James spun around to find a column of fire speeding towards him. At the last second Juniper jumped in front of him and pulled him down below the flames with herself. "That was close," she gasped "try to be more careful! I can't always be saving your butt you know." James smiled and pulled her up to her feet.

"Thanks June." Both of them were now thinking the same thing, what in the world was attacking them, and why. They had been on their way to the woman's hut, and had been on the move for an entire day when they stopped for the night. As soon as they stopped, a huge shape came at them from nowhere and started spewing fire. Thomas ran up to them with Emily right behind him and with Caell circling high overhead.

"What is it?" he asked. The shape was covered in a heavy smoke that was making the group cough while they were trying to squint through it. Juniper took a step towards the dark shape behind the smokescreen and a voice rang through the clearing.

"Well, well. It looks like you have found some friends Juniper!" The voice mocked. Emily extended her weapon as she pulled it out of her belt, with Thomas and James following suit with their guns, waiting for Juniper's signal. Suddenly Juniper began to run towards him, a look of determination on her face. "What? Running at me without a weapon? That's not the smartest thing to do June!" At this Juniper jumped in the air and pulled out two daggers that had been concealed in her boot, and on her belt.

"Now!" That was the signal for her three companions, plus Caell who had swooped in to join them, to attack. They all circled the figure that was rapidly becoming visible with weapons ready. Juniper was amazing. She leaped at the figure and sparred with him for thirty seconds before having him in a headlock with a dagger against his throat. "You know I don't like that nickname you filthy toad." She growled. Her friends eyes widened, never had they heard Juniper speak with such loathing and absolute hatred layering her voice. She was terrifying! Their thoughts were interrupted when she once again spoke. "Why are you; the worst scum there ever was, following and attacking me?" The man spun out of her headlock and pulled her dagger out of her hand in less than an instant. Juniper was on her knees in the instant it took everyone to realize that this man was a much better fighter then her. She winced in pain as her own knife was pressed against her throat. The man stared at the others as he began to speak.

"I am taking her with me. Anybody got a problem with that?" the reply was sent when the three attacked with all their strength. Thomas quickly ran up to the man's right side, and Emily swiftly jumped to his left, while James charged his front. They all attacked at the same time, leaving no opening or escape route for Junipers captor, yet before their attacks landed, Juniper simply disappeared, leaving the man to take the attacks. As they hit him, the power and energy of their weapons charged through, and left him as a broken mess in a field of burnt grass. Their attacks would not have harmed Juniper, had she still been there, but they had severely injured her abductor. He lay there in front of them, struggling and failing to stand.

"Where did you take her!" James yelled, grabbing hold of the scruff of his neck. "Where is she?" The man just roughly laughed and collapsed, unconscious. Emily gently placed her hand on James' shoulder while Thomas sat down on a rock looking lost.

"He's unconscious James, you can stop yelling." Her eyes were shimmering with the tears of laughter. "Anyways, Juniper isn't gone. Are you?" James swung his head around as Juniper jumped down from a tree branch high above them with a giggle.

"Nope! Right here. What, were you worried?" Juniper asked. James' eyes widened as he crushed her in a bear hug. "Um, ouch? I know I worried you, but do you really have to hug me to death?" He set her back down in front of himself and asked her if she was okay. After almost five minutes of him making sure she was fine, she had enough. "I am fine James!" she exclaimed. "calm down!" She found herself blushing when he smiled at her and the corners of her lips turned up slightly.

"Come on you two!" Called Emily, "Lets get going before dark, shall we?" The two turned around, surprised. They had forgotten all about their friends, who had obviously been watching them. James face heated with embarrassment as he replied.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "sorry, we are coming."

"Yeah! Don't leave without us!" Juniper added,"anyways, we should get out of here before his friends get here. But first we need to deal with this guy. He never travels alone, so we should tie him up somewhere and set a trap around him, okay?" everyone agreed, so they went about tying him up and setting a complicated trap. Thomas was the best at tying knots, so he tied the man to a tree, while the network of traps was set around him by the other three. Once they were done they left quickly, into the deep forest and soon all that could be seen from where they had been was rustling trees in the distance and a large bird flying above.

Somewhere else in the forest, two figures leapt through the treetops, jumping from branch to branch with their long coats trailing behind them. They were moving at incredible speeds.

"Rina, don't you think that Teru should have gotten back yet?" one of the figures asked.

The girl known as Rina replied in a worried tone. "You're right Sai, he should be back now."

"Do you think something happened to him?"

Rina rolled her eyes, "Yeah right, you know how strong and fast he is, he probably just stopped at a river or something to rest."

Sai laughed, "Yeah, capturing that half elf girl can't have been super easy." She said as they disappeared into the darkness.

They reached their destination by sunrise, not stopping to rest for the night. As they climbed over the rocky cliff face to the top of the small mountain, they reached the top. A green slope led into a lush mountain valley, a small hut by an evergreen forest, smoke billowing out of the smokestack. Juniper peered closer, and saw a small woman waving by the front door with a smile on her face. Juniper grinned, recognition in her eyes. "Theroan!" she yelled, running towards her old friend. "Come on you guys!" Juniper turned to look at her friends. "She wont bite you know." Once Juniper and Theroan had been reacquainted, and everyone introduced, Theroan led everyone inside her small home.

Juniper set down her porcelain teacup onto the coffee table and took a deep breath. "Theroan, I need to know." Theroan glanced up and set down her cup as well.

"Fine, I spotted a young man, he looked about your age, maybe slightly younger. He had the same pale hair and eyes as you, and whats more his ears tapered to a point. He matched the description you gave me perfectly."

"So where did you get the seeds and bag?" Juniper asked

"He came to my home a week ago, and asked about that photo of you." She pointed at a small photograph in the corner of the room. "I told him your name and he seemed surprised. Before he left he gave me the pouch full of seeds and told me to give them to you. Then he just rode off on a black horse, saying that someone was after you." Juniper grinned. That was her brother all right, he left her the pouch so that she would know it was him, and knew she would go see Theroan to confirm it. "He left you a map and travel supplies as well." Her eyes widened in surprise,

"He left me all of that?" She whispered. "I have to find him."

Theroan nodded, "I agree. You should go after him, the map shows where he is. It is not very far from here you know. Half a day walking on foot at the most, faster if you run." Juniper was surprised that he was so close, then a darker thought crossed her mind.

"He said someone was after me, I think I know who." Emily and Thomas agreed, glad to finally be part of the conversation. "I knew him when I was little, his name is Teru."


	5. PETITION

**Petition**

This is one of many petitions. Add your name to this and any others you find. Add your name to this big petition (www. change petitions /fanfiction- net- stop- the- destruction- of- fanfiction- net#). The administrators of are as of June 4th going to be taking down Fics that have lemons or have extreme violence. Now I don't know about you but I think thats stupid. There are many wonderful fics that only have one or two lemons in them yet the plot itself is awesome! You can't just take down a 100,000 word fic just because it has a lemon in a chapter that is only 1000 words long. Now I urge you all to read the petition below, sign it, and repost this to your own fics. Hopefully if we make enough noise everything will return to normal. Thank you.

Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.

Myself, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.

For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that I believe violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in its original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.

It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.

If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.

While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be losing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.

For those that may agree with this, please feel free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.

ALERT YOUR READERS AND YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS! PM AND REVIEW THE ADMINISTRATORS UNTIL THEY LISTEN!

If you get worried add your story here (www . adultfanfiction . net) before they get deleted. Go here to add your name to yet another petition. www. change petitions /fanfiction- net- stop- the- destruction- of- fanfiction- net#

Psudocode_Samurai

Rocketman1728

dracohalo117

VFSNAKE

Agato the Venom Host

Jay Frost

SamCrow

Blood Brandy

Dusk666

Hisea Ori

The Dark Graven

BlackRevenant

Lord Orion Salazar Black

Sakusha Saelbu

Horocrux

socras01

Kumo no Makoto

Biskoff

Korraganitar the NightShadow

NightInk

Lazruth

ragnrock kyuubi

SpiritWriterXXX

Ace6151

FleeingReality

Harufu

Exiled crow

Slifer1988

Dee Laynter

Angeldoctor

Final Black Getsuga

ZamielRaizunto

Fenris187

blood enraged

arashiXnoXkami

Masane Amaha's King

Blueexorist

Nero Angelo Sparda

Uzunaru999

Harry1817

EarthDragonJd

WolfDragonGod

Crystal Weaver

LD 1449

Aura Depths

Durphey21

hana-chan-is-awsome


End file.
